A taxi driver got the fright of her life after a customer left a snake
nestling in the back of her cab.
Madge Allen, 67, said the find is the strangest and most frightening
she’s ever experienced in her 28-year taxi driving career.
The 4ft corn snake is believed to have slithered out of a passenger’s
handbag before wrapping itself around the bottom of the drivers’ seat.
Madge unwittingly returned to the Stanways Private Hire taxi office in
Mold, Flintshire, Wales, after dropping her fare off at Flint Railway
Station with the snake in her possession.
But she was made aware of the stowaway on her return and said she flew
straight out of her car, after revealing snakes rank among her worst
fears.
“I am petrified of snakes,” Madge said. “It is definitely the strangest
thing I have found in the back of my taxi.
If it had come by my feet when I was driving I don’t know what would
have happened.”
The taxi driver said she had picked up two young men and a young woman
from the Mold taxi office to take them to Flint at about 10.30am on
Monday.
Upon her return she discovered her passengers had since been in touch to explain they had left a snake in the back of the car after it had escaped from the woman’s handbag. “If I’d known they’d had a snake with them I wouldn’t have let them in the car,” said Madge. “But when I got back to the office and they told me they thought there was one in the back I flew straight out of the cab. I was so shocked. People have left plenty of mobile phones and wallets, but never livestock. I thought I’d seen it all.” A snake handler known to staff at the taxi office was then called to rescue the sleeping male reptile after it had curled itself around bars underneath the drivers’ seat.
Sharon Lewis, manager at Stanways Taxis, said: “A woman rang to say she’d left a snake in one of our cars. I thought it was a joke. She told me it was white and orange and that it wouldn’t bite. She said it had been in her handbag so I was expecting a little thing, but when Madge got back we took a torch to have a look and we could see it was about 4ft long. Madge was frightened to death. The woman said her friends would come and collect it, but nobody has been so the snake handler is looking after it. I think it is stupid to carry a snake like that in your handbag.”
Upon her return she discovered her passengers had since been in touch to explain they had left a snake in the back of the car after it had escaped from the woman’s handbag. “If I’d known they’d had a snake with them I wouldn’t have let them in the car,” said Madge. “But when I got back to the office and they told me they thought there was one in the back I flew straight out of the cab. I was so shocked. People have left plenty of mobile phones and wallets, but never livestock. I thought I’d seen it all.” A snake handler known to staff at the taxi office was then called to rescue the sleeping male reptile after it had curled itself around bars underneath the drivers’ seat.
Sharon Lewis, manager at Stanways Taxis, said: “A woman rang to say she’d left a snake in one of our cars. I thought it was a joke. She told me it was white and orange and that it wouldn’t bite. She said it had been in her handbag so I was expecting a little thing, but when Madge got back we took a torch to have a look and we could see it was about 4ft long. Madge was frightened to death. The woman said her friends would come and collect it, but nobody has been so the snake handler is looking after it. I think it is stupid to carry a snake like that in your handbag.”
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